OXFORD, Ohio – A month and a half of Miami soccer's season is in the books and now the focus shifts to Mid-American Conference play.
Having played five of seven non-conference tilts on the road, the RedHawks (2-4-1) begin conference play at home against both of last year's MAC Tournament finalists this weekend. Miami takes on Bowling Green on Friday (4 p.m.) and 2017 MAC Tournament champion Toledo on Sunday (1 p.m.) at Miami Soccer Field.
The RedHawks dropped their non-conference finale, 2-0, at Xavier last Sunday. Still, Miami's two victories match last year's overall total while its seven goals are only two shy of the 2017 squad's offensive output.
Lyda Bogdanovitch leads the Red & White with two goals while
Jordan King has assisted on four of their seven tallies.
Patricia Koutoulas has clocked every second in goal for Miami and enters MAC play with a 1.64 goals against average and a .750 save percentage. MU is looking to get back in the attacking third more, having been outshot 46-12 in the past two contests (both losses) after holding a 29-19 shot edge in two-straight wins prior to that.
Bowling Green went 2-3-2 out of conference and is coming off a 6-0 victory over Youngstown State on Sunday. Erica Hubert paces the BGSU offense with four goals and 10 points. The Falcons have fired 120 shots and lead the MAC with 17.14 shots per match. Defensively, their 0.78 goals against average is third in the conference with Kathleen Duwve's 0.84 goals against average and .833 save percentage ranking third among MAC keepers.
Toledo halted a two-match losing streak by topping Oakland, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon to improve its record to 4-3-1. Offensively, Hannah Scafaria leads the MAC with seven goals while the Rockets' 1.88 goals per match is the third best figure in the conference. UT sports a team goals against average of 0.95, with Madison Perrin (0.97 goals against average, .806 save percentage) getting the bulk of the minutes in goal.
Live stats will be available for both matches courtesy of MiamiRedHawks.com.
Free Kicks
All-Time Series: Miami is 13-8-3 all-time against Bowling Green while holding a 10-12-1 mark against Toledo. The RedHawks fell to both programs on the road last year, dropping a 3-1 decision at Toledo and falling 4-1 at Bowling Green.
The Kids Can Play: Miami has spread out its scoring to this point while breaking in a freshman heavy lineup. Five different players have scored Miami's five goals this season, three of which have been freshmen. Fifteen of Miami's 23 points (5 goals, 5 assists) have been contributed by its freshman class.
Slow Starts: The RedHawks hope to get out of the gates a little faster as it has allowed the first goal in all five of seven contests. Miami has fought back to answer an opening score in three of those outings, including a 2-1 comeback win over Evansville on Sept. 2, but has been outscored 9-2 overall in the first half in the early going this season. The RedHawks have outscored opponents 5-2 in the second half.
Search for Scoring: Offense has been hard to come by for the Red & White the last few seasons and last year saw them score just nine goals in their 18 contests, six fewer than their previous low mark for a season. A good amount of the freshmen were brought in to address the team's attack as it looks to reverse a trend of being unable to find the net with promising results thus far.
Miami scoring by season (per match; record)
2012: 60 (2.50; 20-3-1)
2013: 36 (1.71; 11-6-4)
2014: 31 (1.63; 14-3-2)
2015: 21 (1.00; 11-8-2)
2016: 15 (0.79; 8-9-2)
2017: 9 (0.50; 2-15-1)
2018: 7 (1.00; 2-4-1)
